On the 50th anniversary of the immortal Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes (G1) and the Triple Crown, the spotlight has been on the extraordinary achievement of 'Big Red' and his connections, and rightly so.
Nonetheless, on Sunday morning after the 155th running of the $1.5-million Belmont Stakes the previous day, the remarkable accomplishment of the legendary Woody Stephens training five consecutive Belmont winners–Conquistador Cielo [1982], Caveat [1983], Swale [1984], Crème Fraiche [1985], and Danzig Connection [1986]–is also worthy of note.
That is a record that almost certainly will never be equaled, never be broken.
Trainer David Donk was the assistant to the Hall of Fame horseman from 1985-1990, and remembers him well.
“Woody ate, slept, and breathed horse racing. He was a phenomenal person. It was late in his career when I was around him, but I knew I was working for a legend in his own time,” said Donk. “It was a dream for me to be able to work for him. It was being with the best horses, the best clients, and the best of everything.”
Donk said during his time with Stephens he received an invaluable education, “For a kid that didn't go to college, I went to one of the best universities.”
One of the lessons Donk learned from Stephens was how to deal with the media and how to treat everyone with equal respect, whether he be Daily Racing Form's Joe Hirsch, the late dean of Turf writers, or someone working for the smallest newspaper. Others were those that can only be learned from a legend.
“I will always say in life there's no such thing as the best. But he is one of the best horsemen, undoubtedly,” said his former assistant.
As time goes by events can fade in memory, but icons like Secretariat and Stephens never lose their place in history.
“To explain to someone today how long ago it's been since he won five Belmonts, not just five but five in a row…That's one of the great records, like Joe DiMaggio's or Bob Baffert's [Kentucky] Derby wins,” Donk said. “We talk about Secretariat and it's 50 years, although it doesn't seem like it. But the fact that Woody won all those Belmonts is always going to come up.”
Stephens was as hands on as they come. He knew every inch of each horse under his care.
“It was a different style of training then. Woody only carried 36 horses at one time. We had barns number three and four at Belmont and each barn had 18 stalls. That was size of his stable. It's not the same today as it was 30 years ago,” said Donk, who to this day has only stabled at Saratoga in barn 85, where all five Belmont winners were bedded down. “It was different then. Here at Belmont, there were 18 older horses in barn three and 18 two-year-olds in barn four. That was it.”
Donk said Stephens had an uncanny sixth sense about horses.
“Training was different then. They were a lot harder on horses. They pushed them a lot more,” Donk said. “He taught me detail and to pay attention it, to what you liked and didn't like today, from the time they cleaned up their feed tub, how they acted in the stall, how they were when you pulled them out of the stall. He taught me how to watch how happy the horse is and his demeanor is.”
Woody Stephens once wrote a book titled Guess I'm Lucky, My Life in Horseracing. The title is apropos.
“I guess I'm lucky, too. The biggest break I ever got in my career was to get the job with Woody,” Donk said.
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